Congress on Cultural Rights and Human Development Barcelona, 23 – 27 August 2004
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Congress on Cultural Rights and Human Development Barcelona, 23 – 27 August 2004 FINAL REPORT Barcelona, September 2004 Congress on Cultural Rights and Human Development – Barcelona, 23-27 August 2004 – Final Report INDEX 1. Final Report 2. Session descriptions 3. Congress programme 4. List of participants Interarts – UNESCO – AECI – Forum Barcelona 2004 2 Congress on Cultural Rights and Human Development – Barcelona, 23-27 August 2004 – Final Report Congress on Cultural Rights and Human Development Barcelona, 23 – 27 August 2004 Introduction The International Congress on Cultural Rights and Human Development was planned as a world event in the context of Forum Barcelona 2004, hoping to attract authorities and experts on the chosen topics. Its basic aim has been to provoke a reflection on culture and development in the 21st century. In the same way that environmental industries and activists share common concerns over quality of life, we believe that the traditional integration of culture and market needs to define a new common ground with social, ethical and creative concerns over the capacity of cultures to regenerate themselves. Cultural rights form an elemental part of human rights and are no longer solely acknowledged as applying to minority groups and languages, but also a wider framework for cultural self-understanding. The Dialogue on Cultural Rights and Human Development has intended to fulfil a double set of objectives. On the one hand it attempted to bring together efforts carried out over the past 15 years to rethink the Cultural Rights section contained in Article 15 of the International Covenant of the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of the United Nations. More specifically, it focused on article 15.1(a) regarding the “right to take part in cultural life”. The second objective of the Congress, which is totally connected with the first, also links with a United Nations line of work; that engaged by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) with the Human Development Report, which in its recently published 2004 edition has focused on the relevance of cultural freedom to human development. Many efforts carried out by UNESCO and other academic and governmental partners have also been trying to introduce cultural indicators in the definition of human development. The link between the two objectives was warranted by the fact that arguing about cultural rights without a certain type of appropriate benchmarks monitoring their fulfilment might not lead to practical results whereas discussing indicators without a solid reference to the cultural rights discussion might lose the intercultural quality needed to sustain a global positioning on the topic. The main objectives of the Congress were as follows: Interarts – UNESCO – AECI – Forum Barcelona 2004 3 Congress on Cultural Rights and Human Development – Barcelona, 23-27 August 2004 – Final Report - To discuss possible core elements of the right to take part in cultural life; as defined by Article 15 of the International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of the United Nations. - To identify possible indicators measuring the contribution of culture to human development, which can be relevant both to the UNDP’s Human Development Index and to other research and policymaking processes. - To develop an action plan for research, information, advocacy and action on culture as an essential element in development, thus guaranteeing a continuity of issues discussed in the course of the Congress and taking advantage of other civil society, public and private initiatives which place culture at the core of development strategies. The Congress on Cultural Rights and Human Development was organised by the Interarts Foundation, the United Nations’ Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation (AECI) and Forum Barcelona 2004. The technical secretariat and coordination of the event were provided by the Interarts Foundation. Over 700 participants attended the sessions, where four languages – Catalan, Spanish, English, and French – were used. The Congress was held at the International Convention Centre in Barcelona, within the framework of the Universal Forum of Cultures – Forum Barcelona 2004, which ran between 9 May and 26 September 2004. On Monday 23 August 2004, a separate, preliminary conference entitled New Geocultural Spaces in Globalisation was held, organised by the Organisation of Iberoamerican States for Education, Science and Culture (Organización de Estados Iberoamericanos para la Educación, la Ciencia y la Cultura, OEI), the International Organisation of the Francophonie (Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, OIF), the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa, CPLP) and the Latin Union (UL). The event was the third in a series of conferences dealing with the so-called Three Linguistic Spaces, which bring together Francophone, Hispanophone and Lusophone agents. The Congress on Cultural Rights and Human Development was dedicated to the memory of Eduard Delgado i Clavera (1949-2004), the founder of the Interarts Foundation. Mr Delgado was the original inspirer of the Congress and his vision helped many to understand the relation between cultural policies and human rights. Over the course of the Congress, several speakers noted the fact that Delgado’s own life was proof of his belief in cultural dialogue, interaction and cultural cooperation. Interarts – UNESCO – AECI – Forum Barcelona 2004 4 Congress on Cultural Rights and Human Development – Barcelona, 23-27 August 2004 – Final Report Preparatory Work Prior to the event, the organisers of the Congress set out a series of preparatory activities which intended to ensure that all relevant voices be heard and that the Congress would not be an isolated step, but part of a continuing, long-term process. In the months preceding the Congress, expert meetings and international consultations helped to shed light on the key aspects that were to be discussed in Barcelona. Regional meetings contributed to the process by collecting information and expertise from local and international experts and by consulting local civil society actors in order to build a dialogue between different levels of the process. Among these meetings were an experts’ meeting on cultural indicators (Barcelona, November 2003), a seminar on cultural indicators of human development in Africa (Maputo, March 2004 – co-organised with UNESCO, NEPAD/African Union and Observatory of Cultural Policies in Africa; a follow-up meeting to this event was held in Maputo in early August 2004), a conference on cultural diversity and cultural rights (Sao Paulo, April 2004 – hosted by Arte Sem Fronteiras) and an experts’ meeting on cultural rights (Amman, April 2004 – Patron of the meeting was His Royal Highness Prince Hassan of Jordan). Extensive reports were produced at the end of each meeting, and they were made available to participants of the Congress in Barcelona. On the other hand, in order to explore the regional perceptions on cultural rights and to what aspects are prioritised by individuals, organisations and communities, and to identify items and tools for policy-planning, the process uses a questionnaire as a working tool. This questionnaire has been sent to over 4,500 identified organizations and individuals in all continents. It provides an interesting approach to the issue and aims to function as a bridge-builder between the academic world and the realities of cultural communities. The results of a preliminary analysis were presented by Annamari Laaksonen in the course of the Congress. The second phase of the research will start after this event. Development of the Congress Scope of Cultural Rights and Human Development The development of the Congress has been characterised by the sheer diversity of actors which have participated, and the wide range of views that have been discussed. Intergovernmental organisations, artists, human rights organisations, development agencies, national governments, academics and researchers shared four days of debates and constructive discussion. This may be proof of both the increasing number Interarts – UNESCO – AECI – Forum Barcelona 2004 5 Congress on Cultural Rights and Human Development – Barcelona, 23-27 August 2004 – Final Report of stakeholders and sectors which make references to culture and the ability of the cultural sector to broaden its approach. In addition, the Congress was an attempt to bring together the realities of local cultural management and social work with international discussions in fields such as human rights and cultural diversity, and this led to a wide diversity of places of origin and ranges of interest to be found among participants. In the course of the Congress, calls were heard for the cultural sector to relate to the major challenges facing human development nowadays – poverty, conflict, democracy. This could be heard in the contribution of Alfons Martinell in the opening session on Tuesday 24 August, whereas in order to fight discrimination and exclusion, on August 27 Jesús Martin Barbero called for a new form of democracy so that the quality of life can exist in which citizens are in charge of their own differences. Amar Galla reminded on plenary session “Culture and Development. Voices from the field” that for numerous communities cultural conservation is crucial, and that cultural aspect is elemental for fighting poverty, whereas the plenary session entitled